1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to methods and systems for collecting, storing, processing and directing information and, in particular, to a method and system for out-of-home proximity marketing and for delivering awareness information of general interest.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently, in the digitally connected world, a large segment of the population are using mobile phones and a high percentage of those mobile phones are Bluetooth wireless enabled. Bluetooth marketing allows broadcasting of sales information, promotional messages and other messages directly across a target audience using Bluetooth-enabled devices. Some of the Bluetooth marketing systems detect a Bluetooth enabled device in range, the details of the device such as its unique ID is collected in a database. Providing the discovered device satisfies the transmission criteria, such as OBEX Capable, that device is able to receive OBEX Bluetooth messages. Since sales promotions are available in those devices, the target customers who pass by the premises where the sales take place or close-by those premises can visit the latter. Alternatively, customers can store the sales information in their devices and contact the advertising stores at a later time. This stored sales information can be also readily passed to friends and colleagues.
The target audience can either accept or decline the sales information messages.
The main disadvantage of the foregoing Bluetooth marketing resides in fact that the messages are restricted to customers who are provided with OBEX Capable portable Bluetooth devices. Several Bluetooth marketing systems have been developed. For example, Bloozy, Bluetooth Advertising—Bluetooth Proximity Marketing (http://www.bluetoothadvertising.com) uses a computer system programmed to transmit information to plurality of mobile devices at a range of 100 m. This system has a main disadvantage: it does not include a central computerized unit and a plurality of geographically dispersed displaying units (digital billboards). The essential purpose of the latter is to make aware and persuade the consumers passing in proximity of the displaying units to promptly open their Bluetooth devices. Others, such as Bluush—Bluetooth Proximity Marketing System (http://www.bluush.com) and Outdoor Partner Media (http://www.outdoorpartner.com/ advertise systems that present the same limitation as the aforementioned Bloozy, Bluetooth Advertising—Bluetooth Proximity Marketing system.